Caerberu

I’ve been listening to Brian Tracy’s 21 Ways to Double Your Productivity Audiobook and have found one of the lessons there to be very applicable and effective. To double your productivity, make a list of everything you have to do tomorrow. Make sure to write this list before you go to sleep.

On your next day, identify the tasks that are the most important or urgent, then do them. As you finish those tasks, crush them out.

I found this quite rewarding. Seeing how many tasks I’ve crushed out makes me feel good, since I know I’ve accomplished something useful for the day. It even spurs me to do just one more, and suddenly I’ve got the energy to extend beyond my normal working hours.

Here are the ways to double your time and increase your productivity, according to Brian Tracy:

• Make a DecisionDevelop Clear Goals and Objectives

  Plan Every Day in Advance

  Use the ABCDE Method (Mark A for your most important tasks, and E for your least. Resolve to do A tasks first before other less important tasks)

  Separate the Urgent from the Important

  Practice the Law of Forced Efficiency

  Apply the 80-20 Rule (20% of your tasks contribute to 80% of your results)

  Work at your Energy Peaks

  Practice Single Handling with Key Tasks

  Eat That Frog

  Organize Your Work Space

  Use Travel Time Productively

  Get Better at Your Key Tasks

  Work in Real Time

  Re-engineer Your Work

  Reinvent Yourself Annually

  Practice Zero-Based Thinking

  Set Clear Posteriorities

  Keep Your Life in Balance

  Plan Every Project Carefully

  Be Intensely Action Oriented

It’s really enjoyable preparing something for a person who is important to you. For this Valentines Day, I’m preparing a CD, containing a song composition. I have worked on the song for quite a while now, and it has gone through a lot of changes and improvements. In the process, the experience taught me a lot about how to mix a song. I let it go through the critiques of my friends, and adjusted several areas based on their feedback.

I really like the lyrics of this song from Naruto Shippuuden. It’s entitled Closer, by Inoue Joe. It’s the 4th opening song in the Shippuuden series.

Closer

You’ve gotta be extra careful with
The things that are close and dearest to you
You know the closer you get to something
The tougher it is to see it
Explain to me this happiness
That you just got to experience
Or maybe you’re so blessed that
You can’t even remember it all
That you are standing here with me
That you live and breathe and see and feel
They’re all little miracles and wonder
Just by themselves.
You’ve gotta be extra careful with
The things that are close and dearest to you
You know the closer you get to something
The tougher it is to see it
You know the closer you get to something
The tougher it is to see it
And I’ll never take it for granted
Let’s go!
Even though there are those
Who call the act of mercy hypocrisy,
Because there are both
People who believe and people who doubt
Even if, for example,
That is hypocrisy,
If someone is salvageable,
That is always better than anything else.
It’s fine to say “Never give up”
Say “Keep chasing your dreams on
But the more time you spend talking big
The less you get done with life
I’ll let that handful of courage in my heart
Help me survive another day
And I’ll never take it for granted
Let’s go!
You’ve gotta be extra careful with
The things that are close and dearest to you
You know the closer you get to something
The tougher it is to see it
You know the closer you get to something
The tougher it is to see it
And I’ll never take it for granted
It’s fine to say “Never give up”
Say “Keep chasing your dreams on
But the more time you spend talking big
The less you get done with life
I’ll let that handful of courage in my heart
Help me survive another day
And I’ll never take it for granted
Let’s go!

I read a chain email regarding Rachel Arlington, a young girl who supposedly has brain cancer. Forwarding the email claims to help Rachel–for every three friends you forward it to, AOL and ZDnet pays them 32 cents for the treatment of Rachel.

As I searched the internet regarding this matter, I learned that the chain mail–like many other chainmails–was another hoax. It turns out that emails that claims to provide charity if you pass them around are hoax, since there is no reliable way to track the emails in the first place.

I was also a bit angry at the people who participated in passing around this chainmail. The picture was of a deformed child. It felt like people were just making fun and taking lightly the condition of the child in the photo. It felt ironic that the last words on the email said something like “If you don’t forward this, then you don’t have a heart”. I think that if you forward that message, then you don’t have a heart either. Whoever that child in the picture is, I hope things will get better for him or her soon.

If you receive such mails, I suggest you don’t send them to other people, as is suggested by the email itself.

It feels good when you know you’ve used your time well–like working, spending it with people important to you, accomplishing stuff, tending to things that needed to be done.

That’s how I feel today. From waking up to before sleep, I was busy working on different things. It feels like this day was meaningful.

I remember listening to an audiobook about Leonardo da Vinci, in which it was stated that he often repeated the words “I shall never tire of being useful”, vocally or in writing. This urged him to accomplish his goals and do a lot each day.

Anyway, that’s it for today. Good night~